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Bax Concerts

The Sir Arnold Bax Website Posted on February 4, 2020 by Bax AdminDecember 28, 2020

Richard Masters gives the US premiere and additional US performances of Sir Arnold Bax’s Sonata in E-flat (The sonata Bax later revised to become his First Symphony). Also on his program includes keyboard works by Orlando Gibbons, Brahms Six Pieces … Continue reading →

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Test

The Sir Arnold Bax Website Posted on November 8, 2019 by Bax AdminNovember 8, 2019

Hello hello hello

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Following Bax to Ukraine

The Sir Arnold Bax Website Posted on November 4, 2019 by Bax AdminNovember 8, 2019

Arnold Bax spent at least two months on the Skarzhinska Estate at Kruglik, near Lubny in Ukraine between May and July 1910. Alan Sutton recently visited Lubny and Kruglik and found some interesting historical background to the Skarzhinska family and to pre-revolutionary Lubny, impressions of which Bax took back with him and incorporated into later works.

“Fair and smiling is the Ukrainian land, a fecund Slavonic Demeter”, wrote Bax at the opening of this section in “Farewell, My Youth”. Ukraine was known as the breadbasket of Russia during the last years of the Tsars, and to that extent compares well in modern times with agriculture being the one sector to have prospered in recent years. In other respects, the 20th century has not been kind to Lubny, and the Skarzhinska Estate itself has disappeared: nor was I able to find precisely where it stood. However my visit did uncover some fascinating history about Natalia Skarzhinska’s family, and other pictures and impressions which will be of interest to those interested in Arnold Bax and his works.

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Posted in Essays & Articles

Frank Merrick – The Legacy Recordings

The Sir Arnold Bax Website Posted on October 18, 2019 by Bax AdminFebruary 18, 2021

Harriet Cohen’s influence on Sir Arnold Bax’s music was arguably greatest on his piano music for which she was his muse and frequent dedicatee as well as constant performer. It is therefore surprising that she recorded so little of it commercially aside from the Viola Sonata with William Primrose and a handful of piano miniatures. There also exists a live recording of Winter Legends from a BBC broadcast but sadly none of her performances of the piano sonatas were captured either on vinyl or tape. While many have claimed she was a pianist of limited ability (superb in Bach but compromised in pieces requiring a more formidable technique), she still possessed an understanding of Bax’s music that she acquired from having known the composer on very intimate terms for much of their lives. She also imposed an unofficial ban on others performing his piano music, which of course prevented it from being played and recorded by pianists who might have been better able to promote it during Bax’s lifetime. As a result, we have very few recordings of Bax’s piano music recorded during the composer’s life but we are lucky to again be able to hear one set of the sonatas and selected piano pieces played by a friends and contemporary of the composer who understood his intentions and whose playing of these major works deserves to be described as authoritative.

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Review by Christopher Webber – Frank Merrick and Henry Holst play Bax Violin Sonatas, etc.

The Sir Arnold Bax Website Posted on August 29, 2019 by Bax AdminMay 24, 2021

Frank Merrick & Henry Holst (Nimbus Grand Piano, 4 CD set) Hot on the heels of Nimbus’s Frank Merrick: A Recorded Legacy, a bumper box of 9 CDs centred on the pianist’s pioneering recordings of Bax’s sonatas and a handful of shorter works – including Paean which was dedicated to him – comes this equally valuable supplement for piano and violin. Merrick’s partner throughout 4 CDs of underexposed 20th c. repertoire is the Danish violinist Henry Holst, a pupil of Carl Nielsen who led the pre-war Berlin Philharmonic under Furtwängler and went on to become principal professor of violin at the Royal Manchester College of Music for thirty years, while continuing his high-profile career as an orchestral leader and soloist.

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The Trio Partout plays Bax, Debussy, Harald Genzmer and Johannes Maria Staud.

The Sir Arnold Bax Website Posted on August 29, 2019 by Bax AdminMay 24, 2021

Play of Colours (Farbenspiel) Trio Partout. The reason Bax’s Elegiac Trio has been recorded so frequently – more often than any other of his works excepting Tintagel and the Clarinet Sonata – has something to do with its delectable brevity, but more to do with the fact that it makes an ideal companion to Debussy’s famous sonata for the same, unusual forces. Because the English work was written one year after the French, the assumption has often been made that its composer was consciously writing an hommage: but Graham Parlett’s recent examination of composition, performance and publication dates suggests strongly that Bax could not have heard Debussy’s masterly sonata (or studied the score) before writing his own. The near-simultaneous appearance of these lovely works may well have been happy chance.

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St John’s Smith Square, London

The Sir Arnold Bax Website Posted on June 17, 2019 by Bax AdminJune 17, 2019

Thursday June 20, 2019 at 19:30 St John’s Smith Square, London Bax: Elegiac Trio for flute, viola and harp Alwyn: Naiades Boyle: Trio Notturno Debussy: Children’s Corner, suite (arr. Carlos Salzedo) Takemitsu: And then I knew ’twas wind Debussy: Sonate … Continue reading →

Posted in Upcoming Concerts

Saturday June 22, 2019 at 19:30

The Sir Arnold Bax Website Posted on June 17, 2019 by Bax AdminDecember 28, 2020

Saturday June 22, 2019 at 19:30 St John’s Smith Square, London British Music Society 40th Anniversary Gala Concert Carwithen: Overture Bishop Rock Hurd: https://www.cialispascherfr24.com/cialis-fatigue/ Dance Diversions Harty: Ode to a Nightingale Alwyn: Nemesis (Odd Man Out) Bridge: An Irish melody … Continue reading →

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St James Church, Muswell Hill, London

The Sir Arnold Bax Website Posted on June 17, 2019 by Bax AdminJune 17, 2019

Saturday June 29, 2019 at 19:30 St James Church, Muswell Hill, London Bax: Tintagel Walton: Viola Concerto (Soloist: Alinka Rowe) Vaughan Williams: Symphony no. 2 “A London Symphony” North London Symphony Orchestra Robert Max, Conductor

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Purcell Room, London

The Sir Arnold Bax Website Posted on June 17, 2019 by Bax AdminJune 17, 2019

Monday July 1, 2019 at 19:45 Purcell Room, London Poulenc: L’Embarquement pour Cythère, for 2 pianos (Valse-Musette) Poulenc: Capriccio for two pianos Poulenc: Les Chemins de l’amour Satie: Je te veux Johnson: Charleston Bax: The Devil that tempted St Anthony, … Continue reading →

Posted in Upcoming Concerts

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